In 1983, I initiated a program of selection and improvement in the species Acer truncatum. As part of this program, in March of 1988, I selected four seedlings growing in a cultivated area which I planted into a trial block on a nursery in Boring, Oreg. None of these seedlings have been patented. After several years of evaluation, I determined that one of these trees, which I designated Acer truncatum ‘D’ was the best in terms of foliage quality, form, and fall color. In the fall of 1994, I picked seed from this tree and sowed in a seedbed in the same nursery and raised 68 seedlings and subsequently selected only one, which I named ‘KW-201ATR’ (unpatented), and I planted it in February 2001 into another long term evaluation block in the same nursery. Over the next several years, I observed that ‘KW-201ATR’ had many of the characteristics that I was looking for in my selection program, notably stronger vigor combined with compact growth and good fall color. But it was not as compact as I desired and the fall color was not as bright as I desired. In October of 2002, I picked seed from ‘KW-201ATR’ and sowed it in a seedbed in the same Boring, Oreg. nursery. From this seed lot, I grew 43 trees which I evaluated until March 2007, at which time I selected and transplanted the best 18 trees, discarding the rest. These eighteen trees were grown on wider spacing for two more years and periodically evaluated, and in March of 2009 I selected and transplanted the best nine trees, into a long term evaluation block for final cultivar selection. Of these nine trees, I selected one tree which I named ‘JFS-KW249’ as the present invention. My attention was drawn to ‘JFS-KW249’ because it had the densest, compact form while maintaining good vigor and it developed a beautiful bright red fall color.
In August 2012 and again in August 2013, I directed the asexual propagation in Boring, Oreg. of my new variety by budding onto Acer platanoides rootstock.
From this propagation, I determined that the characteristics of my new variety are firmly fixed and all propagated plants have been identical to my new variety in every way observed.